My turn to give back to my community

I would like to thank everyone who believed in me especially my family and friends. I would like to thank all the donors who made this trip possible for me and it was a great experience. I hope to continue my life learning about Black history and about the innocent lives that were taken by lynching. Hopefully I can pass on my messages to younger students who plan on taking this class in the future.

What I got from this class was that the real racism is up north . When we went to Clarksdale, Mississippi and drove into the neighborhood everyone greeted us with a warm welcome and I was quite surprised because back home in Newark people that looks like that usually wouldn’t greet us like that.  This is truly humbling experience from a kid coming from North thinking he has it worse than others -- I finally got the chance to see how other people live. What amazes me the most was the poor little children in the Clarksdale neighborhood that were too poor to have shoes, when sometimes, I used to complain that I had a certain pair shoes that I didn’t like -- not realizing that I should be grateful that I even have those sneakers.

These past three weeks, I was learned a lot about myself and I’m glad to grow as a person, and that’s why I am so thankful for the opportunity.  This trip has motivated me to be more active in my community. I will start giving back to food pantries and homeless shelters in my neighborhood. I never realized that helping each other at a time like this could bring us all together. The killings in Newark are so crucial and it’s our only people killing each other. If all the rappers who grew up in Newark can grow up owning fancy houses and have all these amount of dollars, why can’t they give back to the community? 

I want to be known as the person who came from nothing, had a very inspirational experience traveling to the South, then came back to Newark to change his community.  If I can ever pay back for this experience, it would start with me giving it back to my city especially with people in need,  and the people who need it the most, the youth like me.  This opportunity has taught me to take my education seriously.  I’m so grateful that people have given their lives so that I can sit in a school like St. Benedict’s.  I plan on motivating others to take school seriously. My goal for the rest of my time in high school and the rest of my life is to change the people around me and change my city so hopefully I can inspire people all around the world to become better people and to motivate others. Once again, thank you for the experience, and you will never be forgotten. What a great way to end sophomore year!